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Reviews by ely2000k:

Great beer. At the title describes, this pours somewhere between brown and black, and looks like a stout with a little less head. Very think, soapy looking head that lingers in the glass. Strong smell of hops jump out of the snifter that I poured it into. Taste is great, hard to completely peg down. Great balance of sweet like roasted malt, balanced by very fresh and somewhat aggressive hops. It's an IPA, but doesn't really feel like one. Imagine a stout with aggressive hops and that is kind of what this is. Mouthfeel is think and a bit creamy. This beer is a winner, will try to get this again before it's gone!

As soon I as tear the top off the 12 oz bottle an intense aroma of fresh Cascadey hops fills the room. Faintly yeasty, but there's no mistaking that what's inside is IPA. And there's no surprise Stone was involved. Beer pours a very unusual opaque brown, fairly cloudy, with a thin but dense head of bronze. This promises to be a brewer's brew. No date on the bottle that I can see, but there are explicit instructions: "Drink fresh do not age"

stone.com reports not cascade but Citra and Galaxy for dry hops and two hops I've never heard of for bittering.

Flavor is like a high quality West coast IPA, with nothing to suggest its color. Nothing roasty, nothing heavy, just crisp IPA with a bright grapefruit edge. The BA notes for American Black Ale note that it is another name for a CDA Cascadian Dark Ale. And by that mark this label is exactly on target.

The appearance may be controversial, and maybe it should have been more finely filtered, but the taste is of a fantastic IPA, and the aroma is quite possibly the best bottled IPA I have ever smelled.

A: Slightly hazy, dark brown color with less than one finger of parchment-tinted foam which diminishes to a modest pad. Moderate lacing remains on the glass.

S: Strong and beguiling hops are piney first and foremost, with subordinate mixed citrus fruit. Other smells are not well-established, but include earthy chicory and sawdust.

T: Begins dry, with lively herbaceous hop aromatics that are bright with restrained vinous notes. Acidity is fairly aggressive, but within acceptable bounds. Flavors turn more earthy in the middle, but never really allow much in the way of malt character to sneak through. Funky aromatic tropical fruit settles on the palate in the moderate bitter finish.

M: Thin to medium viscosity, sticky and acidic on the palate, with low carbonation.

D/O: This beer is an unexpected but delicious parade of top-tier hop flavors. Balance is compromised, but only the hop-haters of the world would be likely to notice or complain. The worst thing that can probably be said about it is that it doesn't seem to benefit much from the dark quality it possesses. Despite its limited-release status it must be consumed fresh.

Appearance is a brown black color with a fairly tall dense head beige in color. Carb's are densent but light.
Fantastically aromatic and awesomely fragrant.
I can smell floral hops and piney hops along with orange tangerine in the bouquet. Wonderful.
Taste leans towards the hops with malts being a minor player. Dark ales of this style tend to lean towards a roasted malt bill actually bordering more towards a porter then an ale due in part from the use of black patent malts, but not the case here.
Flavor here is hops. Orange citrus and cedar notes can be pulled from the flavor. Along with floral. There just enough malts to accent the hop flavor. the malts have a nice complexity also.
Feels smooth on the palette but one can feel a very light chalkiness as it drinks. Bitterness is quite low and finishes clean.
this was an awesome drinking beer in every aspect. With the names on the bottle would you expect anything less.